Father and Son - #1.
Note: Thinking of making a collection of Father and Son fics. This is Number One.
Jake had never been one to show exactly how he felt, he'd learnt long ago that to survive as one of the elite you needed a good poker-face. But there was something he tried to show quite often; his love and respect and pride in his son. Duncan was too perfect to be a part of a family as dysfunctional as the Kane's. He was kind and smart, and the one they all loved without reserve.
Lilly loved him, they were friends, and even when the rest of the world thought they were insane, the two of them always understood each other. It didn't matter how often Lilly made stupid comments about Lilly, or how many times Celeste blamed Lilly and let Duncan slide on a join transgression; they were brother and sister, they were family, and more importantly they were friends.
Celeste respected him. He was the child she had always wanted; polite, neat, smart, popular, civilized – in her eyes he was the ideal child.
Jake had always loved his son. He was the perfect fit for their family, no matter what everyone else believed. Duncan was everything Celeste wanted, everything Jake could never be, and everything Lilly wasn't. He was the piece of their puzzle which made the whole thing complete, he was the string that somehow tied everything together.
Duncan was his own person, but sometimes Jake saw so much of himself in his son. It was as if Duncan had inherited all of Jake's good qualities, and only one of his bad (a certain fascination with a Mars woman). Duncan believed in the same things as Jake, liked the same things, but Duncan was even less pig-headed than his father.
Jake loved Duncan just because he was Duncan, he made their illusion of the perfect family complete, and he tied them all together, finished off the jigsaw.
He was the last piece of the puzzle, without which the jigsaw made no sense.